TEACHING BELOVED STUDY QUESTIONS PART ONE CHAPTER 1

TEACHING BELOVEDSTUDY QUESTIONSPART ONECHAPTER 11. Elie Wiesel has said that nothing compares to the Holocaust from World War II and hasrejected any comparisons. In her dedication, Toni Morrison is drawing a clear parallelto the Holocaust. Is this a valid comparison? If so, why? If not, why not? Beloved is comparable to Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust because both slavery and theholocaust haunts its victims after it is over. Both event’s victims lose their identitythrough dehumanization – holocaust shaving of head, slavery being sold as aproduct.2. What is 124? 124 is the house that Seth and Denver lives in. The baby ghost haunts it. The settingof the book.3. Why are the sideboard moving, the house pitching, and the dog thrown across theroom? Beloved haunts the house.4. Who dies on page 5? Beloved.5. Why does Sethe want “Dearly Beloved” engraved on the tombstone? “With another ten could she have gotten ‘Dearly’ too? She had not thought to askhim and it bothered her still that it might have been possible – that for twentyminutes, half hour, say she could have had the whole thing, every word she heardthe preacher say at the funeral (and all there was to say, surely) engraved on herbaby’s headstone: Dearly Beloved. But what she got settled for, was the one wordthat mattered.” She hears the preacher say “Dearly Beloved” at the funeral and thought that “DearlyBeloved” was her name. Sethe talks about prostitution in the quotation above. If shehad stayed as prostitute with the engraver a little longer, she could’ve gotten Dearlyin too. This creates a sense of guilt in Sethe.6. Why does she have only “Beloved” engraved? That is all Sethe paid for.7. What do you understand from “The picture of the men coming to nurse her?” We understand that this was a flashback to the moment that Sethe was being rapedat Sweet Home.8. Do the nephews rape Sethe in addition to taking her milk? Yes, but Sethe emphasizes on the part when they stole her milk.9. Who is Paul D, and what kind of person is he? Paul D is a former male slave that lived on Sweet Home with Sethe.10. Why do the male slaves on Sweet Home let Sethe decide which man she wants? Because they were Sweet Home men.11. Why does Mr. Garner say, “Neither would I.” (p. 13)

Mr. Garner wants to pick a fight with his fellow plantation owners. He says it toprove his point. He says it to distinguish himself from his fellow farmers.12. Why does Sethe choose Halle? “Maybe that was why she chose him. A twenty-year-old man so in love with hismother he gave up five years of Sabbaths just to see her sit down for a change was aserious recommendation.” Sethe chose Halle because he gave up his Sabbaths so his mother can be freed fromslavery.13. Why are so many of the slaves named “Paul?” The Pauls are a brand name. When being sold in an auction, the Pauls will berecognized as a type of product from a specific producer, Mr. Garner.14. What details are you given about Sweet Home? “Suddenly there was Sweet Home rolling, rolling, rolling out before her eyes Boyshanging from the most sycamores in the world”15. On page 17, Denver says the baby is “rebuked.” What is the connotation of this word? Rebuke: to criticize sharply The connotation is bitterness, sour, and full of hate.16. Why is there a tree on Sethe’s back? The schoolteacher whipped her after she told Mrs. Garner that the nephews stoleher milk and raped her.17. What is the significance of its being a chokecherry tree? The scar could’ve been called any type of tree but it was referred to as a“choke”cherry tree -- negative connation which gives the idea that Sethe is choked.18. What is a tobacco tin? Symbolic way of saying that Paul D sealed many of his past and painful memoriesaway. The tobacco tin is the heart that died from slavery.19. What does Paul D do to the ghost? Paul D beats the baby ghost out of the house.20. What is Denver’s attitude toward the ghost? Denver likes the ghost because it was her only company.21. Why does Beloved’s spirit stay on earth? Why doesn’t it go to Heaven or to Hell? Sethe wouldn’t let Beloved go since she has yet to explain to her daughter why shewas terminated.CHAPTER 21. What motivates Sixo?Patsy the Thirty-Mile Woman Pg. 29 – “Twenty-five years and blip! The kind of thing Sixo would do- like the timehe arranged a meeting with Patsy the Thirty-Mile Woman. It took three months andtwo thirty-four-mile round trips to do it. To persuade her to walk one-third of theway toward him, to a place he knew.”2. What happens to Baby Suggs other children? “What she called the nastiness of life was the shock she received upon learning thatnobody stopped playing checkers just because the pieces included her children.

Halle she was able to keep the longest. Twenty years. A lifetime. Given to her, nodoubt, to make up for hearing that her two girls, neither of whom had their adultteeth, were sold and gone and she had not been able to wave goodbye. To make upfor the coupling with a straw boss for four months in exchange for keeping her thirdchild, a boy, with her- only to have him traded for lumber in the spring of the nextyear and to find herself pregnant by the man who promised not to and did.” Pg. 283. How do Sethe and Paul D feel after they make love? Pg.25 “Not a tree, as she said. Maybe shaped like one, but nothing like a any tree heknew because trees were inviting things you could trust and be near; talk to if youwanted to as he frequently did since way back when he took the midday meal in thefields of Sweet Home”CHAPTER 31. Why does Denver like the bower behind 124? “In that bower, closed off from the hurt of the hurt world, Denver’s imaginationproduced its own hunger and its own food, which she badly needed because theloneliness wore her out. Wore her out.”2. Who is in the white dress kneeling down next to Sethe with its sleeve around her waist? Beloved.3. What is the significance of the antelope metaphor on page 37? “And oh but when they danced and sometimes they danced the antelope .Someunchained, demanding other whose feet knew her pulse better than she did. Just likethis one in her stomach.” The antelope refers to the African American roots. Back in African, their ancestry isfree, unchained. Since Denver is said to be an antelope, she is also free.4. Why does Denver love the part about Amy the best? “And now the part Denver loved the best:Her name was Amy and she needed beef and pot liquor like nobody in this world.Arms like cane stalks and enough hair for four or five heads. Slow-moving eyes. Shedidn’t look at anything quick .” Denver loves the part about Amy because she is the one that was named after. Bylearning who Amy Denver was, Denver learns about herself.5. Why does Sethe lie about her name to Amy? “However far she was from Sweet Home, there was no point in giving out her realname to the first person she saw.”6. Why does Amy massage Sethe’s feet? Amy massages Sethe’s feet to bring it back to life. If Amy had not massaged Sethe’sfeet, then Sethe would’ve ended up losing her feet because they were so lifeless.7. What is the significance of the colors described on page 47? “Every dawn she saw the dawn, but never acknowledged or remarked its color.There was something wrong with that. It was as though one day she saw red babyblood, another day the pink gravestone chips, and that was the last of it.”

CHAPTER 41. What is the effect on the reader of having the three shadows holding hands? “Sethe looked to her left and all three of them were gliding over the dust holdinghands. Maybe he was right. A life.” The three shadows holding hands showed thehopes of a fresh new start for Sethe, Denver, and Paul D. At this point of the book,everything was good and could’ve resulted in a happy ending.2. What is the importance of the dying roses? “The closer the roses got to death, the louder their scent .” The dying rosesrepresent Beloved. The closer the community (Paul D) got to ridding Beloved, thestronger Beloved becomes. So strong that the ghosts materializes into a person.CHAPTER 61. Who appears in front of 124? Beloved.2. Why is she wearing new shoes? She has never walked for extended distance. Her feet are not like other slave’s feet.New shoes new beginning – beginning a second journey through life.3. Why is her skin soft and smooth? Beloved died when she was two years old.4. How does Denver react to Beloved’s arrival? Denver feels a familiarity with Beloved. Unlike Paul D, Beloved was someone thatDenver knew, even though she herself is not quite sure about the connectionbetween the baby ghost and the new girl in the house.5. Why does Beloved like sugar so much? She is still like a baby.6. Why does Denver contradict what Paul says at the end of the chapter? Denver wants to protect Beloved, so she can keep taking care of her. Denver wantsto hold on to Beloved to keep her company.CHAPTER 61. Why does Mrs. Garner give Sethe the earrings? Mrs. Garner gives Sethe the earrings as a wedding present so she could wear themon her big day as something valuable. However, we see it as she doesn’t wear themtill she’s free because they represent her dreams, treasures and hopes. Mrs. Garneralso gives them to her because she felt pity towards Sethe since she had “noceremony, no preacher. Nothing.”2. What are Sethe’s memories of her own mother?

Sethe’s memories of her own mother are the “circle and cross burnt right in theskin” on her rib. This “mark” represents dehumanization and slavery as theybranded her like a cow or horse. She knew her mom by that mark. Sethe was in aweat that time and asked if she could be marked too. Her mother “slapped” her. Sethenow understands why she slapped her because she “has a mark of her own.”3. Why does her mother have a brand under her breast? Her mother has a brand under her breast so if she ever ran away, they could trackher down. It’s also a loss of identity as if she was a cow and that mark is like the tagon their ears. It’s a sign of ownership towards the slave owner too.4. What is the meaning of a circle with a cross in it? The meaning of a circle with a cross in it is Sethe’s mom has been branded as if shewere a cow or horse so she has lost her identity. The whitemen have stolen it andraped her of it. The fact that they mess up the face so bad you have to have a sign onthe body is so brutal. However, when Sethe looks for her mother’s corpse, Nan pullsher away.5. Why does Sethe’s mother throw away all the other babies she had? Sethe’s mother throws away all the other babies she had because the rest of her kidswere conceived by a white man. Sethe was the only one she gave birth to whilehaving sex with a “black man” therefore, she gave her “the name of the black man.”Sethe’s name really reflects herself because she’s strong and independent and holdsherself like a man. She’s like the man of the house even when Paul D comes into thepicture. She knows how to take care of everything.

4. How does Denver react to Beloved’s arrival? Denver feels a familiarity with Beloved. Unlike Paul D, Beloved was someone that Denver knew, even though she herself is not quite sure about the connection between the baby ghost and the new girl in the house. 5. Why does Beloved like sugar so much? She is still like a baby. 6.